“I don’t think it fits into any head that the coach publicly, on a plane, can pressure or coerce or say something in a hostile or threatening manner to a person he has known for a long time, who is the brother of a player who has that special appreciation for her“. With this finality, the former coach Jorge Vilda denied before the judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge having coerced the player Jennifer Hermoso to clarify that the kiss given to him by the then president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, during the World Cup celebration, had been consensual, according to the transcript of the statement to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access.
Vilda, who testified as a defendant, assured that people who know him know that he is “incapable of pressuring or coercing anyone,” to which he added that You could ask “any of the soccer players” who had trained “during these 17 years” who, he insisted on pointing out, had worked for the federation. This insistence on her professional career led to the lieutenant prosecutor of the National Court, Marta Durántezto remind him that he should stick to what was asked, without adding comments on the questions.
The former coach insisted that in the 24 hours that the trip had lasted he had gone three times to see if he could speak with Rafael Hermoso, Jenni’s brother, because the first two were sleeping, and that he chose to ask him to talk to the soccer player because he saw her as “overwhelmed.” What she intended, the former coach stressed, was “lower the media pressure”, worried about it, because it could affect his “sports performance”. She denied that she was insistently looking for him: “Do you think that searching for a person twice in 24 hours is insistent?” She responded at one point during her interrogation.
Vilda assured that her concern was for the player and not for the then president of the RFEF, because she has “special appreciation” for her, given that “she has known her for years.” Furthermore, “I have received very nice messages from her during this World Cup, of recognition and pride in everything we were doing.”
“If I don’t call up one of the best players in the world (Jenni Hermoso), what I would be doing is making the selection wrong”
““How am I going to do that,” he said when asked if he had threatened “retaliation.” to Hermoso’s brother, if she did not come out to talk to the media. “If we think about it, that’s throwing stones at my own roof, because the only retaliation I can do as a coach would be not to call her up. But if I don’t call up one of the best players in the world for the last 10 years, what I would be doing is making the selection wrong,” he explained just before adding that she is a player whom he appreciates and who values ”her sporting performance a lot.”
No response from Tomé
When asked why she had not been summoned then by the coach who replaced him, Montse Tomé, Vilda said that she had not had contact with her; that she congratulated her when she was appointed, but that she received no response from her, so she had been surprised that she did not summon her. Since she had not spoken to Hermoso either, she assured her, and she could not say what the soccer player’s emotional state was.
Since he sees the soccer player as “certainly uncomfortable” and does not want “at any time for her to feel overwhelmed” or “pressured,” he goes to talk to his brother, to ask him to tell his version of what happened. “What I can’t remember is literally the words I used, but of course I remember the message that I wanted to convey to Jennifer’s brother, Rafa,” said the accused, to reject having offered him the possibility of his sister having a position in the national team, because he said that it did not depend on him.
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Vilda explained to the judge that as national coach, he has always ensured safety, the interests of the players and, “in this case, Jenni, who is one of the most important players, not only in the world cup, but throughout the season to have achieved this world championship and above all, during his career.” “At that moment what I was thinking was that all this could not only cloud a celebration, and cloud an excellent, excellent world championship on his part, But in the end of an athlete’s career, what could remain is an event that happened in a celebration and in a medal ceremony. My intention did not go further,” she asserted.
Regarding Rubiales’ kiss to Jennifer, Vilda declared that she was “not aware of anything” because she was behind the line. When she came down from the podium, things began to go “wrong” because her daughter has a pain in her stomach and they have to take her to the hospital by ambulance. In the end, the girl can fly. “When we arrived at the airport, we got on the plane” and until then there was an “atmosphere of celebration, because we have made history.” Already on the plane, The atmosphere becomes rarer, “it is not at all the same” and different groups are formed. One of them is that of the president and his trusted men. She explained that having knowledge of Rubiales’ kiss to the player and seeing it on the Internet made her realize the media commotion that “the kiss was taking,” to the detriment of the “historical milestone” of being world champions.